Dirac eigenvalue optimisation and harmonic maps to complex projective spaces

DOI10.1093/IMRN/RNAE216MaRDI QIDQ7026020zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Mikhail Karpukhin, Antoine Métras, Iosif Polterovich

Publication date 18 February 2025

Published in IMRN. International Mathematics Research Notices (Search for Journal in Brave)

Copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1093/IMRN/RNAE216

zbMATH Keywords

conformal classes of Riemannian metrics Dirac operators eigenvalues harmonic maps

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Spin and Spin({}^c) geometry (53C27) Differential geometric aspects of harmonic maps (53C43) Specialized structures on manifolds (spin manifolds, framed manifolds, etc.) (57R15) Spectral theory; eigenvalue problems on manifolds (58C40) Harmonic maps, etc. (58E20) Spectral problems; spectral geometry; scattering theory on manifolds (58J50)

Review text

The authors of the paper under review prove several results on the eigenvalues of the spin Dirac operator on a compact oriented Riemann surface \(M\) (for which a spin structure always exists). Fix a spin structure \(S\) and a Riemannian metric \(g\) on \(M\). The corresponding spin Dirac operator \(\mathsf{D}_g\) is essentially self-adjoint and has discrete spectrum consisting of real eigenvalues, which are symmetric with respect to 0.\N\NLet \N\[\N\cdots\leq\lambda_{-2}(M, g, S)\leq\lambda_{-1}(M, g, S)<0<\lambda_1(M, g, S)\leq\lambda_2(M, g, S)\leq\cdots\N\] \Nbe the increasing sequence of the eigenvalues of \(\mathsf{D}_g\) counted with their quaternionic multiplicity, where \(\lambda_{-k}(M, g, S)=-\lambda_k(M, g, S)\). The normalized eigenvalues of \(\mathsf{D}_g\), defined by \N\[\N\widetilde{\lambda}_k(M, g, S):=\lambda_k(M, g, S)\sqrt{mathrm{Area}(M, g)}\N\] \Nare invariant under rescaling of metrics within a conformal class.\N\NThe authors first present a new proof that the first normalized eigenvalue on the 2-sphere satisfies the inequality \N\[\N\widetilde{\lambda}_1(\mathbb{S}^2, g, S)\geq\widetilde{\lambda}_1(\mathbb{S}^2, g_{\mathbb{S}^2}, S)=2\sqrt{\pi},\N\] \Nwhere \(g_{\mathbb{S}^2}\) is the standard round metric, and the equality holds if and only if \(g\) has constant curvature. This result was first proved by \textit{C. Bär} [Math. Ann. 293, No. 1, 39--46 (1992; Zbl 0741.58046)].\N\NThen, they prove that if a Riemannian metric \(g\) (within a fixed conformal class) is critical (see Definition 2.1) for the \(k\)-th normalized eigenvalue \(\widetilde{\lambda}_k(M, g, S)\) of \(\mathsf{D}_g\), then there exist eigenspinors \(\psi_1, \ldots, \psi_m\) of \(\mathsf{D}_g\) such that \N\[\N\sum\limits_{k=1}^m\|\psi_k\|^2=1,\N\] \Nwhich is called the criticality condition (for the eigenspinors involved). Conversely, if there exist eigenspinors \(\psi_1, \ldots, \psi_m\) of the \(k\)-th normalized eigenvalue of \(\mathsf{D}_g\) such that they satisfy the criticality condition, and either \(\lambda_k(M, g, S)<\lambda_{k+1}(M, g, S)\) or \(\lambda_k(M, g, S)>\lambda_{k-1}(M, g, S)\), then \(g\) is conformally critical for \(\widetilde{\lambda}_k(M, g, S)\).\N\NGiven eigenspinors \(\psi_1, \ldots, \psi_m\) of \(\mathsf{D}_g\), the authors define a map \N\[\N\Psi:M\setminus Z\to\mathbb{CP}^{2m-1},\N\] \Nwhere \(Z\) is the zero set of \(\psi_1, \ldots, \psi_m\). One of the main results states that if these eigenspinors correspond to a nonzero eigenvalue and satisfy the criticality condition, then the map \(\Psi\) is harmonic.\N\NAnother main result states that for any \(0\leq a\leq\frac{1}{2}\) and \(b>2\pi\), the flat metric \(g_{a, b}\) on the 2-torus \(\mathbb{T}^2=\mathbb{R}^2/\Gamma_{a, b}\), where \(\Gamma_{a, b}\) is the lattice \(\mathbb{Z}(1, 0)+\mathbb{Z}(a, b)\), is the unique smooth minimizer of \(\widetilde{\lambda}_1(\mathbb{T}^2, g, S_0)\) within the conformal class containing \(g_{a, b}\), where \(S_0\) is the trivial spin structure on \(\mathbb{T}^2\). Indeed, the authors prove a stronger result, which includes the case of the nontrivial spin structure on \(\mathbb{T}^2\).

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